What Happens the Day Oprah Visits Your Restaurant

The day that Oprah eats at your restaurant can happen a couple of different ways. It can be a whole event: her people called your people, arranging for space for her, her party, and security guards in tow. But she’s been known to drop in, too. Oprah can finish her meal quietly, eat what she eats, and move on. She can also ham it up with guests, chefs, and anyone else willing to step up and get a story to take home with them.

The latter Oprah—Margarita Oprah, as one might refer to her—recently dined at the Park Hyatt’s Michelin-starred Blue Duck Tavern in Washington, D.C., as general manager Joseph Cerione told Vanity Fair on a recent phone call. “[Oprah] just kind of showed up on her own [to dine with Gayle King] and was wearing a bright-yellow dress and created quite a stir,” Cerione remembered. “I don’t think she was looking to be incognito by any means, and [she] didn’t have any security with her.”

When welcoming Oprah or someone of equivalent stature, it’s generally incumbent on the most famous person in the room to set the tone. Cerione pointed out, “There’s a level of excitement and buzz that carries through the restaurant, and some [people] really feed off of it,” adding, “But Oprah, for example, went and said hello to the pastry chef and shook people’s hands. It was certainly more than wanting to have a quick bite to eat without being approached. She was much more open.”

When the restaurants we spoke to deal with a natural tastemaker such as Oprah or the like, they follow an ethos of “the customer is always right,” times a million, from the reservation to dessert.

Prep work

Dining out for an average person might go like this: make reservation, go to restaurant, enjoy restaurant. But the first step can get complicated when you’re internationally-recognized star. Cerione explains, “One of the most difficult things is dealing with the coordinators of that reservation because it seems like usually there’s multiple people involved in wanting to make sure that you’re setting the expectations, and you deliver on what’s expected. Oftentimes I think it gets lost in translation depending on how many people are involved in those kinds of bookings too.”

Blue Duck Tavern has welcomed Leonardo DiCaprio, Reese Witherspoon, and Katy Perry. With that kind of range, demands can run the gamut. He continues, “Some may prefer to be more private, some may want to be more out in the open with the public. Sometimes that communication isn’t clear. We always offer different options too,” he added. “If a celebrity would like to enter through the back door for example, that’s something we can do.”

Oprah was the exception that proved the rule, he said. “I think that Gayle King did have a reservation or had called ahead just moments before, but we didn’t know Oprah was arriving.”

Secure the premises

At Atlanta’s South City Kitchen, a twenty-something-year-old restaurant that specializes in southern fare, general manager Jon Barkell has seen the likes of Seth Rogen, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West, Lupita Nyong’o, and Steve Carell. Much of the initial negotiation is finding space for security nearby. “Usually when it’s someone along Oprah’s level, someone will call for them and they will arrange for a security-guard table,” Barkell told Vanity Fair on a recent phone call. “So they’ll ask for a table that’s out of the way, that’s in the corner. And then they ask for the security guards to have a table maybe not right next to them, but in an area where they can sit and watch. And [security] always sit and enjoy dinner at the same time that they're enjoying dinner, but they just want to keep an eye on them.”

It’s a similar story at Charlie Palmer Steak, a D.C. power-lunching spot managed by Michael Irving, who told Vanity Fair over the phone that the security detail usually wants “to see entrances and exits, and they try to feel it out and figure out where the guest will sit. . . . If at all possible, we allow them to pick their spaces.” Since the restaurant is located steps away from the Capitol, Charlie Palmer gets frequent bipartisan fund-raiser events as well as diners like Speaker Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi, along with other famous types like Peyton Manning, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Bono.

Don’t ask, don’t tell—unless they tell first

Christa Weaving, the vice president of marketing at Charlie Palmer Group, told Vanity Fair on a recent call, “We are not the type of restaurant to call The Washington Post and say, ‘Hey, Angelina and Brad Pitt are here. Mike [Irving] just told me that Denzel Washington was just there, and I didn't even know.”

Sometimes they would rather the media not find out at all. Weaving mentioned that Charlie Sheen visited in 2015, as he was on his coming down from a multi-year spotlight bender. “He really caused a bit of scene. We didn't call The Washington Post on that one. He wanted to be seen and heard,” she said.

And he was. The write-up in The Washington Post the next day recounted a 3:15 P.M. incident in which the embattled actor had to have his silverware removed from the table because he kept “banging it on things,” according to a source.

It can work the other way as well. In 2009, Barack and Michelle Obama spent their anniversary dinner at Blue Duck Tavern. Cerione explained the publicity process for that, saying, “When the Obamas had their anniversary and it was public, reported widely, and confirmed with their team. But we'll never be able to confirm something unless someone else’s team does. It's their news to share, not ours.”

“That was before my time,” he continued. “But the lasting impression was still felt, which is pretty incredible—in how long ago it was—that we still hear about it, that it's still published in different publications.”

Play it as cool as you can

Barkell of South City Kitchen reiterated that the celebrity sets the tone. “For the most part, people are super-respectful. You get those Oh my God faces, and the Are we really sitting next to this person? faces. Eventually, I think most of the time the celebrities will turn to the table and kind of say, ‘Hi,’ and everything seems to calm down after that.” That is, if they’re noticed at all: “Sometimes people are caught up in their experience at the restaurant or their phones or whatever else, and sometimes they miss out on the things that are actually happening around them.”

But what of the staff, especially at a place that’s seen Kim and Kanye, Oprah, and a number of other top-tier, primo, A-1 talent? “We all have some conversation about it,” Barkell said. “We're humans just like the guests. . . . Maybe one or two would walk up and say, ‘Hi, I really appreciate what you do,’ or just say thank you or make sure they're by the window when it's time to run food to that table so they can tell their friends and family, ‘Hey, I ran food to Oprah's table or I ran to Gerard Butler's table,’ ” Barkell said. “Really, it's an unwritten rule. We let them dine just like everybody else.”

Oprah, by the way, got South City Kitchen staple—the fried chicken—just like any normal diner would.

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Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

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Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Karl Lagerfeld

In the late 90s, the Chanel and Fendi designer lost approximately 90 pounds, which he has kept off by subsisting on minimal food and up to 10 Diet Cokes per day. He and his physician, Dr. Jean-Claude Houdret, collaborated on a 2005 book, The Karl Lagerfeld Diet.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Kim Kardashian West

When speaking to People in June 2016, Kardashian West credited the Atkins 40 diet with helping her slim down in the months since delivering her second child.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

The actor has maintained disciplined eating habits since his pro-wrestling tenure. Johnson told Muscle & Fitness that each day he eats about 10 pounds of food over the course of seven meals, with cod as his primary source of protein.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Gwyneth Paltrow

The Oscar winner’s second book, It’s All Good, collects recipes engineered for those with dairy, meat, and gluten sensitivities.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Jackie Kennedy

Don’t assume that the Queen of Camelot had an all-American palate: Kennedy’s sole daily meal reportedly consisted of a baked potato stuffed with Beluga caviar and sour cream.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen

According to a Boston.com interview with Allen Campbell, personal chef to the four-time Super Bowl winner and the supermodel, the couple follows the 80/20 Rule to stay in shape.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen

Brady and Bündchen avoid the seemingly not-so-bad foods pictured here, which include nightshades and tomatoes.